Like most kids his age, Ethan Johnston likes to play soccer, watch football on TV, hang out with friends, and play video games.

And ballroom dance.

Ethan
is one of 65 fifth graders who learned how to tango, waltz, swing, and
do a series of other fancy footwork as part of a new “Dancing
Classrooms” program this fall at Wildwood Elementary School.

The
program culminated during a schoolwide assembly in late November where
students circled the gym, arm-in-arm with their partners, to show off
what they had learned. They performed again in the evening for their
parents and other family members.

Several
of the students, including 10-year old Johnston, advanced to a regional
Dancing Classrooms competition on December 6 at Todd Beamer High School
in Federal Way.

Johnston and his partner, Hailee Campbell, danced the merengue.

“I
love the merengue,” said Johnston, who had never tried ballroom dancing
until this year. “I like the style of music, the rhythm, and the way my
feet move.”

The
ballroom dance classes are held during the regular school day and led
by trained Dancing Classrooms Teaching Artists. The curriculum-based
instruction is held for 45 minutes twice a week for 10 weeks.

While
dance appears to be the program’s focus, it is actually secondary to
the primary goal of teaching students social and life skills, said
Wildwood Elementary Principal Almai Malit-Idler.

Dance
is a tool, she said, for getting children to break down social
barriers, build self-confidence, work as a team, and, above all, learn
to treat everyone with respect.

The
program is presented at an age when it can be awkward for some children
to talk to the opposite sex, much less hold hands and twirl around the
room with different partners.

The change in their comfort level was noticeable from week to week, Malit-Idler said.

“I
saw it as a community-building activity at our school,” Malit-Idler
said. “It may be the only opportunity that some of these kids have to
experience something like this.”

By
the end of the 10 weeks, boys appeared more comfortable escorting girls
arm-in-arm from their classrooms to the gym. Most students had also
stopped covering their hands with sweatshirt sleeves during partner
dances.

“They
go from being boys and girls to being ladies and gentlemen,” said
Heather Longhurst, site director of Dancing Classrooms and executive
director of Pacific Ballroom Dance.

At
the culminating performance, many of the girls traded tennis shoes and
jeans for heels and elegant sparkly dresses, while boys sported dress
shirts and ties.

In
addition to dancing, several students read letters aloud that they had
written to Teaching Artists Beth Dolan and Christine France explaining
how they felt at the start and again at the end of the program.

At the start of the 10 weeks, fifth grader Liz Cordes wrote that she was “excited, but really nervous.”

“I
was excited because I thought it would be fun to learn some of the
dances I watch on ‘Dancing With The Stars,’” she wrote. “I was nervous
because I thought I might forget some steps and might be laughed at. Now
that Dancing Classrooms has started, I’m not at all nervous.”

Classmate
Dakota Williams wrote in his final letter that he feels more
comfortable dancing in front of a crowd — something he was nervous about
at the start.

Fifth-grade
teachers Mark Aguilar and Janet Wolcott, who danced with students
throughout the 10 weeks of practice, praised the Dancing Classrooms
curriculum and its effect on students.

“Dancing
classrooms provided a great opportunity for students to learn and work
together as teammates, and more importantly, they had fun doing it,”
Aguilar said.

Wolcott
added, “They have learned to be respectful and polite with each other,
and the instruction is very developmentally appropriate. All of the
steps make sense.”

Wildwood
Elementary is the first school in Puyallup to offer the
artist-in-residence program. The program was funded through a
combination of a Dancing Classrooms grant and local school fundraisers.

Johnston’s
mother, Gillian, said her son thoroughly enjoyed the program.
Passionate herself about dance, she said she is happy the school offered
elementary students such a unique opportunity.

“They are doing something they wouldn’t normally do as a 10-year-old,” she said.

The Puyallup School District, in partnership with our diverse communities, educates and inspires students to reach their full potential.